Juan Cole

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki maintained Saturday that Iraq is ready to provide its own security in the cities, as US troops cease patrolling. This despite the raft of bombings that kille about 200 people last week. Aljazeera English has video on the lack of political progress and the failure of reconciliation in Iraq. End/ […]

CNN says that Iran’s National Security Council met recently with opposition leaders Mir Hosain Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezai. Ismail Kowsari, spokesman for the NSC, is said to have complained to Mousavi that his position, that the presidential election was stolen, is “illogical” and that he should not have repeated it after Supreme Leader […]

AP is reporting that opposition leader Mir-Hosein Mousavi has agreed to the Interior Ministry’s demand that he apply for a permit one week in advance for any demonstrations, and will cease calling for unlicensed rallies. This is an about-face on Saturday from his stance just 24 hours earlier, when he said that the election theft […]

As the dramatic events in Iran have taken the world focus off Iraq, the news that some 200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in bombings and other political violence during the past week has been overlooked by many in the West. On Friday, a bus station in Baghdad was bombed, killing 7 persons and wounding […]

Joan Baez adds her support to the Iranians campaigning for more rights, singing “We Shall Overcome” with Persian stanzas toward the end. End/ (Not Continued)

Michael Jackson’s sad death at age 50 has provoked an outpouring of emotion around the whole world. Because of globalization, it is an event that affects fans in Asia and the Middle East, as well. In early 2007, his brother Jermaine, a Muslim, announced that Michael would embrace that religion. In November of 2008, just […]

At his Friday prayers sermon on Friday, hard line cleric Ahmad Khatami (no relation to former president and liberal Mohammad Khatami) called for capital punishment for leaders of the popular demonstrations against the outcome of the election. This call is a new and dangerous turn, since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had praised the opposition leaders […]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who stands accused of stealing the recent election in Iran, lashed out at Barack Obama on Thursday. He demanded an apology from the White House for what he termed interference in Iranian affairs, and said Obama had started talking like George W. Bush. He said that Obama’s current stance was not […]

A massive bomb shook Shiite east Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 70 persons and wounding 135. It was unclear, Ned Parker of the LAT reports, who was behind the strike, whether Sunni radicals or Shiites involved in a faction fight. Me, I’d put my money on Sunni radicals. There has at no point been any proof […]